Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Field Trip Day!

Relationships

Before heading out for our field trip, we enjoyed time together in the classroom eating lunch. Relationships and the upcoming school year transitions were a big part of our discussion. Abby, Elena, James, and Tegan shared a little about their visit from the Kindergarten panel that morning and we also talked about the incoming children for next school year. We introduced the children to photos of the children who will be new to our school and there were several familiar faces! Abby and Tegan immediately noticed Jack and Audrey's photos and were excited about their siblings going to Brown Room in the Fall. Lou Lou and others shared connections with many incoming children as well. We invited the children to make thoughtful messages welcoming these new members of our school.. 

Some children also enjoyed looking at books with one another, enjoying each other's company and sharing ideas about topics in the books. 

Rose Park

Finally, we headed out to Rose Park where children encountered opportunities for gross motor challenges, dramatic play, and social games such as Hide and Seek. Several children worked at conquering sliding down the tall pole. Grace, Lou Lou, and Elena found the height and distance between the climber and pole intimidating but persevered declaring their intent to master this task. Tegan, Abby, and Louise came right alongside their friends to model, encourage, and cheer them on in overcoming their fear. As children overcame their fear and conquered the technique, they joined the mentors and helped each other figure it out. It was moving to watch the collective problem solving and the children stuck to it for a large portion of our time at the playground. Tegan even spent time figuring out how to get onto the pole from a seated position on the climber for one friend who was nervous but wanted to try it that way. Eventually everyone who set out to slide down the pole did it! Everyone, including James and Sam who had been observing and encouraging along the way, cheered for each child as they figured it out!

There were other similar challenges children came across amidst all the fun on the playground where they had to bring both their physical and cognitive strengths together to solve what seemed like a physical puzzle. All in all we had a wonderful time exploring, learning, and playing together! Enjoy the photos and we look forward to more KW fun tomorrow!